If you are interested in the origins of psychedelic art before the genre was embraced by poster artists hired to advertise rock shows at places like the Avalon and Fillmore, check out the new article at haighstreetart.org on Olga Spiegel, who took her first acid trip in Greenwich Village in 1964 and often painted while musicians from jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers to a guitarist named Jimi Hendrix jammed with her former pianist husband in their New York City loft.
To acknowledge Spiegel’s early contribution to psychedelic art, three of her paintings have been selected by the Haight Street Art Center to celebrate Bicycle Day, which marks the day in 1943 when Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman first ingested some LSD of his own making, coming onto the drug as he road home on his bicycle. The “Untitled” painting from 1965 shown above will be produced as an art print; a second painting from 1972 serves at a Bicycle Day poster; and a piece from the 1980s will be turned into a sheet of blotter art. You can preorder a set of all three prints here.
On April 22, HSAC will host a Bicycle Day celebration. You should check it out, and while you are there, you can catch the wonderful show of rock photographs by Herbie Greene, an exhibition of blotter art, and a searing series of prints by John Mavroudis relating to the death of Tyre Nichols. Admission to HSAC is free.
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